As the demand from users for bandwidth is rapidly increasing, optical transmission systems, where subscriber traffic is transmitted using optical networks, is installed to serve this demand. These networks are typically referred to as fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC), fiber-to-the-building (FTTB), fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP), or fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). Each such network provides access from a central office (CO) to a building, or a home, via optical fibers installed near or up to the subscribers' locations. As the transmission bandwidth of such an optical cable is much greater than the bandwidth actually required by each subscriber, a passive optical network (PON), shared between a plurality of subscribers through a splitter, was developed.
An exemplary diagram of a typical PON 100 is schematically shown in FIG. 1. The PON 100 includes M optical network units (ONUs) 120-1 through 120-M, coupled to an optical line terminal (OLT) 130 via a passive optical splitter 140. Traffic data transmission may be achieved by using two optical wavelengths, one for the downstream direction and another for the upstream direction. Downstream transmission from the OLT 130 is broadcast to all ONUs 120. Each ONU 120 filters its respective data according to, for example, pre-assigned labels. ONUs 120 transmit respective data to OLT 130 during different time slots allocated by OLT 130 for each ONU 120. Splitter 140 splits a single line into multiple lines, for example, 1 to 32, or, in case of a longer distance from OLT 130 to ONUs 120, 1 to 16.
The Gigabit PON (GPON) is an emerging standard currently being adopted by many telecommunication companies in order to deliver high-speed data services to their subscribers. These services typically include a bundle of TV broadcasting, Internet, and telephone services.
To provide these services an ONU 120 is connected to a residential gateway installed in the premises. As illustrated in FIG. 2 an input of a residential gateway 210 is connected to the ONU 120. The gateway's 210 outputs are coupled to, for example, a telephone device 220, a TV set-top box 230, and a computer 240 to provide Internet connectivity. Generally, a residential gateway may provide the functionality of a modem and router and may be, for example, a cable modem, a router, a switch, a wireless modem, a wireless router, and so on.
As can be recognized from the installment configuration depicted in FIG. 2, a telecommunication company would install and support two devices to provide high speed data services. Obviously, this is a costly solution. In addition, the current installment configuration limits the services and features that can be offered to subscribers.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide an apparatus that integrates the functionality of both a residential gateway and an ONU.